Hagerman Tunnel Trail

Hagerman Tunnel Trail is a 7.4 mile lightly trafficked loop trail located near Leadville, Colorado that features a lake and is rated as moderate. The trail is primarily used for hiking, trail running, and mountain biking and is best used from June until October. Dogs are also able to use this trail.

The perfect acclimation hike. The hike itself is at high elevation, but generally flat the whole way so you can become comfortable moving around at high elevation. We loved all he different historic sites from the boom town up there. You could step off the trail and wander through old wooden house frames and find metal cans, rings from barrels, bricks, etc. We also did the little side loop towards the end around mile 5. The way out was nice, but the way back was essentially non-existent. You could either walk out to the end of the rail line there and then turn back, or just be ready for a bit of bushwhacking.

Great trail! Very easy to follow, even for newer/less-experienced hikers. Our dogs had a BLAST! Very few other people, which was GREAT. The drive all the way up to the trail head is 'fun, - be prepared for 15-20 minutes of dirt road to get there. We took our time and had an enjoyable 3.5-hour full-loop hike. It's beautiful!

You get a piece of all the lovely things about Colorado within this trail. Overall the hike was very easy with nicely defined trails and trail markers. You get to experience a little bit of the high altitude without killing yourself (if you come from out-of-state). The view from the tunnel is absolutely gorgeous! You can see the small lake with traces of an old mining town! There are 3 or 4 information boards throughout the hike which delivers a welcomed history lesson of the area you are hiking. I would definitely hike again! 4/5 stars because I wish the hike itself was a little longer.

This hike had it all in my opinion. We crossed a number of small streams (water for the pooch), a small waterfall, mountain lakes and an abandoned railway tunne high in the mountains. We loved finding remnants of the rails. The views were gorgeous! We are doing it again - this time taking the opposite route on the loop.

What a cool hike! We had no idea that Hagerman Pass Rd would be such an adventure of its own (though we did see a Prius at the trailhead. so it's doable for at least some low-clearance vehicles). The trail was great fun, but there's still quite a bit of snow up there so expect lots of postholing, trail losing, and plenty of stream crossings (the sketchy-looking one with the very steep drop-off wasn't as bad as it looked). We made it an out-and-back to the tunnel and needed a solid 3 hours to do so. Have fun out there!

Great hike! Lots of beautiful views and historical information! Still very snowpacked and lost the trail a couple of times but finished in about 4-5 hours! Definitely worth the hike and will be hiking again mid summer!

This is one of my favorite trails in the Leadville area as it connects to an old railroad route and leads to the abandoned railroad tunnel. This trail is the most direct route to the tunnel, thus is a bit more strenuous. However, one can take advantage of the old rail bed on the way back down. There are remnants of Douglas City and other misc. industrial pieces on the way to the tunnel.

We did Douglass City and Hagerman Tunnel from the Windsor Lake trailhead. Beautiful and very interesting hike. This route shortcuts the Hagerman Tunnel trailhead route by about 1 mile (at least 2 miles round trip) but includes all the good stuff. Once reaching Hagerman Tunnel you can return via the same route for about a 2.5 mile round trip, or proceed Northeast along the old railroad bed to Hagerman Lake. The loop will put you back on the trail you took up, just below Douglass City. The round trip for this option is about 4 miles. Check your route frequently as the trail signs are easy to miss.

Note: If you reference my route record there is a small gap on the old railroad bed going Northeast from Hagerman Tunnel toward Hagerman Lake because I forgot to un-pause after a break near the tunnel.

Beautiful views on the trail. however it's not a very well marked out trail by any means. Trailhead nor route is clearly marked and we briefly wandered off trail multiple times.
Not a very strenuous hike by any means.

Great trail nice having a destination like the Tunnel and the old town! I really enjoyed this hike with my dog and would recommend this trail to anyone wanting a short out and back hike in the Leadville area.

Only a few more strenuous spots, this isn't a terribly tough hike. What's amazing is the mining and railroad history in which this trail is built. Even more amazing is how quickly the entire place was abandoned after the railroad was finished.

Take the short drive past the lower tunnel to skip a not particularly interesting extra mile. The trailhead for hiking is less prominent than the Jeep trail up to Hagerman Pass, so make sure you're heading the right way. The hiking trail heads into the woods while the Jeeps drive up a rocky path.

Firstly, we drove to the 4WD trailhead in a tiny 2WD car. It was pretty much as good a road as the 2WD dirt road to the lower tunnel. A couple questionably large rocks that can be avoided with slow driving. Late June and the trail is nearly impassable at a couple points due to extremely fast moving and eroding streams. I had to carry the medium dog across one or two of them that went up to my mid-calf. One of them has eroded the trail so badly there's barely enough horizontal surface to walk through. But we got past it. Then we get to an intersection and a sign saying simply 'trail'. Contrary to my belief that the cross trail was the important trail it seems to only mean you are already on the trail. So don't listen to the sign and just keep on with what you're doing. (but do follow the lined up rocks earlier that direct you) We saw Douglas City instead of the tunnel because the sign confused us and then it was too late to go back. The views here were amazing. Huge peaks in all directions. Lots of ruins including remnants of a brick structure almost as far up as you can go. We could see the tunnel above us. There was a serene and pretty little lake. On the way down we tried to figure out how to come out at lower tunnel parking area so we could avoid all those crazy streams on the trail but snow fields obscured the barely visible alternate trail so it was a struggle to get down. By the time we did we were very happy to walk up the dirt road to the trailhead parking lot.

Nice trail with great views with the added interest of the tunnel. Your not able to enter the tunnel but just a few feet. Trail was varied from single track to double to rocky scramble where some of the cuts in the rock have collapsed. I hiked the trail doing the cutoff through the old town site and looped back through the full hagerman route. The total miles was 7.1.

We had a lot of fun with this hike. Some neat railroad history here that you'll see along the way. The tunnel at the top is interesting as well. I can't imagine what it took to put a railroad tunnel through the top of the mountain...let alone get the train to this elevation! And....it was used for such a short amount of time!

We did this as a loop, taking the railroad grade back down the mountain. Don't forget your camera!